Summer 2024 - 100

W
VOICES
What inspired you to choose a career in the
gift/stationery industry?
ANDY MEEHAN (President, Greeting Card Association
(GCA), & Consultant): I couldn't resist the temptation to
dive into a world where creativity meets the hilarity of
British wit. Later, I learned about the great aspects of
all types of artwork and other editorial that goes into
creating great greeting cards!
CARLOS LLANSO (CEO,
Legacy Publishing): Necessity
they say is the mother
of invention. In business,
necessity sometimes emerges
in a problem that needs to
be solved or an expense
that needs to be mitigated.
Fresh out of the military, in
1991, I was the sales manager for my father-in-law's
book manufacturing business. We called it book
manufacturing even though what we really did then,
as we still do now, is fix books. Around that same time,
we started calling it a Book Hospital. We still do. That
business is Dunn & Company. And Dunn & Company is
the largest Book Hospital in the world.
We fix books for most publishers and most book
manufacturers in the world. Back in the early '90s,
Dunn was converting about half a million hardcover
books to paperback every month. Think of this as
cosmetic surgery (as opposed to the misprints, typos,
defective bindings, warping covers and all the other
more 'trauma(tic)' repairs we fix every day. Publishers
have hardcover books that are not selling anymore.
Publishers still have a paperback market and demand
for those hardcover books. They send Dunn the hard
100 SUMMER 2024 GIFT SHOP® PLUS
e kicked off 2024 by introducing
12 incredible visionaries in gift
and stationery, including retailers,
manufacturers, designers, sales managers
and executives. Their stories are as diverse as
our industry, and we want to continue to share
their expertise and narratives with all of you.
We asked, they answered, and each issue
we'll share with you some of their new insights.
A special thank you to our
Spotlight Awards partners:
backs, we print new paper covers, strip the hardcovers
off and bind the naked book blocks into the new paper
cover. Inventory salvaged, title saved and the publisher
gets a new paper back at a fraction of the cost of
printing and binding a brand new paperback edition.
My father-in-law came up with the process of doing
this in the '70s and we still do it, mostly, the same way.
But, every time you convert a book, you are left with
two pieces of board - the front and the back cover of
the book become a trashy byproduct of an otherwise
brilliant, eco-friendly, profitable process.
ANGIE PFIEFER (Vice President of Sales, Mud Pie): Mud
Pie is the first company I've worked for in the gift and
stationery industry. I was really drawn to the fact that
it is a female-owned and -operated company. I knew
the brand, I had purchased the product many times
before, and was just overall really excited about the
prospect of working with Marcia Miller. I remember after
I interviewed and got the job offer, thinking to myself,
'Wow, this is the perfect fit. I'm going to retire here.'
JANINE KWOH (Owner and
Designer, Kwohtations): I
stumbled into the stationery
industry. I don't have any
formal art training, and I
actually started out my career
in private equity, which is
about as far from making
greeting cards as you can
get. I began making greeting cards as a hobby and
eventually started selling them on Etsy and at local craft
fairs as a side business. Over time, Kwohtations has not
only grown into my full-time job, but making greeting
cards has become the best way I've found to advocate,
Summer 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Summer 2024
